James recommended that I watch this frontline documentary ( produced by the public broadcasting system ) and I was expecting it to be more about the current economic crisis and its causes. Instead it was a hard look at the reality of the United States national debt.

In the beginning of the documentary there is a slow zoom into the all seeing eye sitting atop the pyramid on the US dollar. This was as close as the documentary gets to suggesting a cause of the national debt on anything else outside of Republican tax cuts, health care, and general overspending.

It informs us that every man woman and child in the country is approximately $35,000 in debt, that all of this money is being borrowed to us, and that we are paying interest on the borrowed funds. It goes on to look at the recent Republicans in the White House who have been elected on low tax ideologies. It blames them for spending the same amount as before and more while at the same time lowering taxes. It then praises Bill Clinton’s administration for balancing the budget.

It then takes a short look at the cost of wars and their effect on the national debt. And the rest of the documentary seems to focus on the cost of health care and how it is unsustainable. It shows a graph of the projected cost of health care over the next 20 years… about 10 years from now in the healthcare demands fully consume the entire budget.

So after watching this documentary I feel like we need to raise taxes, put more strict spending controls on the government, and stop electing Republicans. At least that’s the way it appears the movie is designed to make you feel. I also felt like the movie was suggesting that if you want low taxes and keep on electing promoters of low taxes and you are indirectly at fault for the gross economic debt.

The documentary seems to be paving the way psychologically for Obama to push through health-care reform.